AE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 29: In this thirteenth tutorial looking at Shape Layers in After Effects, Andrew Devis looks at the problem of creating and animating a true spiral in After Effects and how it can be done by using paths copied from Illustrator.

Thank you so much for pointing this out as it will be very helpful for those who don't have Illustrator! To be honest with you it never occured to me to check the presets!! So, well done for seeing it there. However, either way it's a bit of pain not having a spiral tool, but it's great to see it can be done directly in AE as well. Your comment will help people see the direct AE solution.

Hello Andrew! Your tutorials are among the best ones.
After I saw this one, I discovered that you can create a spiral in AE without using illustrator. The technique is the same, but you do not need to go in Illustrator.
You can do it by creating a line with the pen tool (creating a shape layer) and then apply the PATH SPIRAL preset.
This will create a Mask. Inside the mask there is an ANIMATED SPIRAL PATH. If you expand this you will see the MASK PATH. Just copy this and past in path of the created shape (the line) and voila...
Then you just need to delete the keyframes if you do not want it animated and delete the masks created by the preset.
Bellow is a print-screen showing what I describe. Just click on the image to enlarge it.
Cheers

AE Basics 20: Shape Layers Part 4 - Merge PathsPlay VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 20: In the fourth tutorial looking at Shape Layers in After Effects, Andrew Devis starts to look at the operands or FX that can be applied to shape layers in After Effects. Andrew starts by looking at the Merge Paths function.

AE Basics Extras: Butterfly Wing Text AnimationPlay VideoIn the first part of this two part AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis starts to show how to create a butterfly wing with text.
The purpose of these tutorials is to give additional hints and tips for text animation in After Effects. Items covered in this tutorial include, using the pen tool, paths, copying mask paths to shape layers, text along a path and path option, 3D layers, animation of a wing, loopOut expression and viewing your composition in a different viewer.
In the second part of this tutorial Andrew will go on to complete the animated butterfly in 3D and show how to have it fly around your screen.